Sunday, July 16, 2006
A ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are for.
July 14, 2006, a day of disappointment. It all began when I received the following e-mail earlier this year:
Please pass along to any and everyone you think might be interested. Let me know off-list if you have any questions. Thanks!
Peter Campbell
Literary Manager, Chekhov Now Festival
Chekhov Now Festival Playwriting Contest
Submission Deadline: July 15, 2006.
Looking for new theatrical adaptations of the short stories of Anton Chekhov to receive a cash award of $250 and a workshop production at the 2007 Chekhov Now Festival in New York City. Two pieces will be chosen.
Any length will be considered; works may have been previously produced, but not in New York.
Since 1999, the Chekhov Now Festival has been a venue for new and innovative works for theatre from around the country and around the world, based on the writings of Anton Chekhov. Its mission has been to explore Chekhov outside of the realm of the naturalistic theatre; the festival invites, commissions, and presents productions and adaptations that emphasize the theatrical, the physical, and the experimental. This year, in hopes of finding new work from across the nation and the globe, we are sponsoring a contest to find two short story adaptations for our next festival, which will be produced at The Chocolate Factory in Long Island City in January 2007.
All submissions must be received by July 15, 2006 to be considered.
Well, I thought, “How great!” I’ve been working on various permutations of Chekhov for almost two years, from studying the four major plays by myself, taking a class on Chekhov in the Slavic Language department of UNC, doing tons of research on turn-of-the-century Russia, working on scenes from Uncle Vanya in acting class, teaching first-year grad students about life in Russia, directing a show made up of adaptations of three of his stories, and writing and performing a short play called The Chekhov Class. So, having a go at one more of Chekhov’s stories seemed like playing a game I understood.
I let the idea percolate and read different stories, looking for the one that seemed most right. I liked The Bishop, and toyed with that idea for a while, but eventually settled on The Kiss.
The Kiss is the story of a nerdy soldier who goes to a party and gets kissed by a girl in the dark, but he doesn’t know who she is. For a while, the kiss makes him ridiculously happy and fills him with all sorts of dreams.
I worked on it in my head while driving across America, and scrawled cryptic little notes in that atrocious handwriting produced in a moving car while not looking at the piece of paper one is writing on.
I have this idea that it should be a little bit like Sam Shepard, rather than overly genteel.
When I got back to North Carolina I went to the library at UNC (air-conditioning!) and hacked away at it, and then bored all my friends by e-mailing them a very carelessly-proofed draft and asking for their emotional reaction. (I blush even now when I think of some of the typos…) Even my hermit-friend reads it and gives me two good comments. My friend and all-time, best, superb, wonderful, totally amazing editor, Risa, reads it and meets me for lunch and hands over a marked-up version, which I spend the next day and a half worrying over. This is the second day before the deadline, and I’m going to submit it electronically, and, having been born before 1970, still don’t entirely, 100% trust computers. It’s done, it’s proofed, I’m not satisfied, but I’m not ashamed – I think anybody watching my version would “get” what the story was about . And off it goes.
Dear Mr. Campbell,
Attached to this message is a copy of my short play The Kiss, adapted from Chekhov's short story of the same name. I am also mailing you a hard copy in case the electronic universe reformats the file. The file is in Microsoft word.
Thank you very much for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Charlie
And no sooner than I return from the post office and log on, does the following message arrive:
Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, we've had to postpone the festival indefinitely. I hope you'll let us hold on to this so we might consider it if we're able to start up again.
Thanks for your time and effort, and I am very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Sincerely,
Peter Campbell
If I were a drinking man, this would have been an occasion for exploring the bottom of the bottle. Instead I went to the gym. I hate the gym – well, not the gym itself, but going to the gym – the known benefits of engaging in the activity rarely outweigh the loss of time spent there. But today I get on the elliptical Lifefitness machine, punch in “Hill”, punch in “30 minutes” and take off. Today I get on one of the machines that is in front of this bank of five TV’s, all tuned to different channels – it’s a very schizophrenic way of watching – because my attention wanders from one channel to another. Anyway, today 30 minutes goes by in a flash. Over 500 calories, just like that. Now what can I eat to make up for it?
July 14, 2006, a day of disappointment. It all began when I received the following e-mail earlier this year:
Please pass along to any and everyone you think might be interested. Let me know off-list if you have any questions. Thanks!
Peter Campbell
Literary Manager, Chekhov Now Festival
Chekhov Now Festival Playwriting Contest
Submission Deadline: July 15, 2006.
Looking for new theatrical adaptations of the short stories of Anton Chekhov to receive a cash award of $250 and a workshop production at the 2007 Chekhov Now Festival in New York City. Two pieces will be chosen.
Any length will be considered; works may have been previously produced, but not in New York.
Since 1999, the Chekhov Now Festival has been a venue for new and innovative works for theatre from around the country and around the world, based on the writings of Anton Chekhov. Its mission has been to explore Chekhov outside of the realm of the naturalistic theatre; the festival invites, commissions, and presents productions and adaptations that emphasize the theatrical, the physical, and the experimental. This year, in hopes of finding new work from across the nation and the globe, we are sponsoring a contest to find two short story adaptations for our next festival, which will be produced at The Chocolate Factory in Long Island City in January 2007.
All submissions must be received by July 15, 2006 to be considered.
Well, I thought, “How great!” I’ve been working on various permutations of Chekhov for almost two years, from studying the four major plays by myself, taking a class on Chekhov in the Slavic Language department of UNC, doing tons of research on turn-of-the-century Russia, working on scenes from Uncle Vanya in acting class, teaching first-year grad students about life in Russia, directing a show made up of adaptations of three of his stories, and writing and performing a short play called The Chekhov Class. So, having a go at one more of Chekhov’s stories seemed like playing a game I understood.
I let the idea percolate and read different stories, looking for the one that seemed most right. I liked The Bishop, and toyed with that idea for a while, but eventually settled on The Kiss.
The Kiss is the story of a nerdy soldier who goes to a party and gets kissed by a girl in the dark, but he doesn’t know who she is. For a while, the kiss makes him ridiculously happy and fills him with all sorts of dreams.
I worked on it in my head while driving across America, and scrawled cryptic little notes in that atrocious handwriting produced in a moving car while not looking at the piece of paper one is writing on.
I have this idea that it should be a little bit like Sam Shepard, rather than overly genteel.
When I got back to North Carolina I went to the library at UNC (air-conditioning!) and hacked away at it, and then bored all my friends by e-mailing them a very carelessly-proofed draft and asking for their emotional reaction. (I blush even now when I think of some of the typos…) Even my hermit-friend reads it and gives me two good comments. My friend and all-time, best, superb, wonderful, totally amazing editor, Risa, reads it and meets me for lunch and hands over a marked-up version, which I spend the next day and a half worrying over. This is the second day before the deadline, and I’m going to submit it electronically, and, having been born before 1970, still don’t entirely, 100% trust computers. It’s done, it’s proofed, I’m not satisfied, but I’m not ashamed – I think anybody watching my version would “get” what the story was about . And off it goes.
Dear Mr. Campbell,
Attached to this message is a copy of my short play The Kiss, adapted from Chekhov's short story of the same name. I am also mailing you a hard copy in case the electronic universe reformats the file. The file is in Microsoft word.
Thank you very much for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Charlie
And no sooner than I return from the post office and log on, does the following message arrive:
Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately, we've had to postpone the festival indefinitely. I hope you'll let us hold on to this so we might consider it if we're able to start up again.
Thanks for your time and effort, and I am very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Sincerely,
Peter Campbell
If I were a drinking man, this would have been an occasion for exploring the bottom of the bottle. Instead I went to the gym. I hate the gym – well, not the gym itself, but going to the gym – the known benefits of engaging in the activity rarely outweigh the loss of time spent there. But today I get on the elliptical Lifefitness machine, punch in “Hill”, punch in “30 minutes” and take off. Today I get on one of the machines that is in front of this bank of five TV’s, all tuned to different channels – it’s a very schizophrenic way of watching – because my attention wanders from one channel to another. Anyway, today 30 minutes goes by in a flash. Over 500 calories, just like that. Now what can I eat to make up for it?
# posted by Charlie @ 8:42 AM 
